Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – Book Review

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – Book Cover

The last time I read an Agatha Christie book was around 35-40 years ago. I’d worked my way through most of her collection, thanks to my Aunt Maggie, who spent decades amassing mystery novels, so naturally, the works of the Queen of Crime were included. Then, suddenly, I had enough. I got tired of the Belgian with the big mustache, just as I did with the nosy Mrs. Marple. But a book review blog offers a good opportunity to give this classic British author another chance. And, of course, it’s wise to start with one of her most famous works. Like Murder on the Orient Express.

The Mystery of the Sealed Express Train

The Orient Express, spanning the width of continental Europe from Istanbul to Paris, seems like the perfect setting for a murder. You board, do what you must— preferably at night, when everyone’s peacefully snoozing in their sleeping compartments – then get off at the next stop and sayonara, leaving the rest to those left on the train.

Of course, accidents can always happen. Like a snowstorm that leaves you stuck on the train in the middle of nowhere in Yugoslavia. And then, even worse, the famous Belgian private detective, Hercule Poirot, is also on board and is immediately asked to investigate. But let’s be real, even if they hadn’t asked, I’d bet my rusty pocketknife he’d look into it anyway.

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The Collector by John Fowles – Book Review

The Collector by John Fowles – Book Cover

Frederick Clegg, a butterfly collector and an even grayer-than-gray low-level office clerk, admires Miranda, a lively, aspiring art student, from afar. (Actually, more like he’s just stalking her.) He has no chance with her. In fact, he has no chance with anyone. He’s weird, unfit for life, humorless, and lacks any imagination. However, when he suddenly comes into a large sum of money thanks to a lottery win, brand-new opportunities open up for him. The collector decides to add Miranda to his collection.

Time Has Flown By for The Collector

This is actually the first thing you notice. John Fowles’ novel was first published in 1963. It’s hard to say whether the author himself was stuck in the past or if it’s just his utterly characterless protagonist that creates this slightly unsettling feeling. Either way, it’s not immediately obvious that the story takes place at a time when the Beat era and the sexual revolution were in full swing.

In The Collector, these cultural shifts are only faintly present. Clegg narrates the capture of his new acquisition and his activities with her with an odd, emotionless detachment. It’s as though the butterfly collector, this man without qualities, is somehow stuck outside of time, or at least has remained firmly anchored in the past. Everything about him feels like it belongs to decades earlier.

The early 1960s was a time when class distinctions were largely dissolving in the West. The constant emphasis on the class differences between Miranda, an upper-middle-class girl, and her lower-class, socially aspiring captor doesn’t do much to help the novel’s reception decades later… And Fowles’ characters listen to Bach and Mozart instead of The Beatles…

No Sex, Please, We’re British

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The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Book Review

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Book Cover

I first read the most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s four Sherlock Holmes novels during my elementary school years. Admittedly, It’s been quite a while since then, but I can tell you that the wretched beast scared me so much that I could hardly sleep. I vividly imagined its fire-breathing snout and its eyes blazing in the flames as it roamed the moors, hunting for prey and howling at the moon, so fiercely that it sent shivers down my spine. However, it’s been 120 years since the writing of The Hound of the Baskervilles, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if the notorious hound’s fur had thinned out a bit by now. And most of its teeth might have fallen out as well…

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a Terrifying Monster

It’s easy to understand why the tale of the bloodhound, which has been haunting the Baskerville family for centuries, is the Scottish writer’s most popular work. It’s self-evident, due to its supernatural aspects. The otherworldly creature that haunts the family as a vengeful spirit has become a local legend. The crime scene is an abandoned, dangerous moor populated by eccentric characters. All these elements serve to heighten the reader’s sense of dread.

Moreover, considering the impact of the story at the time of its release, it’s not hard to imagine the reaction it must have provoked. Doyle, who revitalized and pioneered the crime fiction genre, had an influence on his field comparable to, that of The Beatles on the music of the 1960s.

The unsuspecting Victorian-era readers, accustomed to a more leisurely pace of life, probably reacted the same way I did as a child: they were so excited that they ended up filling their pants.

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Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery – Book Review

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery – Book Cover

When the elderly siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, living in the Prince Edward Island village of Avonlea, request an orphan boy from the orphanage to help with the chores around their home, they are quite surprised to find they’ve received a girl instead. But who on earth needs a girl? Certainly not Marilla, the practical, down-to-earth spinster. So what will happen to Anne Shirley, the freckled, skinny, red-haired, plain-looking eleven-year-old girl? How will she ever become Anne of Green Gables?

Anne Shirley is unwanted by anyone

The girl’s only hope is Matthew, the slow-witted, odd, and shy old man who has a pathological fear of women. He doesn’t even look at them, let alone speak to them. (This is somewhat understandable, of course.) So, Anne Shirley’s chances, to put it mildly, are not very promising…

However, the reclusive Matthew, who sticks out like a sore thumb among his peers, is the first to realize—even before the reader—that the lonely and unwanted Anne needs them far more than they need her. (Understanding that the reverse is also true comes later.)

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